Most computing devices have wireless capability and in order for two devices to share data over a wireless link it is generally necessary to uniquely identify the two devices and to perform a pairing operation. Wireless devices are generally identified using their wireless ID (e.g. their Bluetooth name or MAC address) and in order to pair two devices, a first device searches for other devices which are visible over the wireless link and provides a list of possible wireless IDs to a user. The user then selects the particular wireless ID with which pairing is to occur. Dependent on the location and the range of the wireless technology used, there may be large numbers of possible devices discovered.
Interactive surfaces have been developed which provide a table top touch screen by which a user can interact with a computing device. A user may wish to connect a mobile device, such as a mobile telephone, with the interactive surface and as the interactive surfaces are touch sensitive they can detect when a mobile telephone or other object is placed on their surface. However, automatic synchronization of the interactive surface and the device can only occur if the device is physically augmented with a tag (e.g. an RFID tag) because the interactive surface cannot distinguish the device on its surface from other devices which are discovered over the wireless link. Alternatively, the list of discovered devices can be provided to the user for selection of the correct device (as described above) however this introduces user input into the synchronization process.
The embodiments described below are not limited to implementations which solve any or all of the disadvantages of known methods of pairing wireless devices.